Monday TV: Drinking and Doing TV
With food shows reaching their saturation point -- especially this week -- it seems natural that there be more shows about drinking. The Esquire network has so far led the…
Sunday TV: Jay Leno’s Back and Feted
Jay Leno returns to TV in a big way as recipient of "The Mark Twain Prize" (PBS, 8 p.m., check local listings). His "Tonight" show successor Jimmy Fallon, Chelsea Handler,…
Saturday TV: ‘Hello Ladies’ Wraps
Stephen Merchant was on the ground floor of cringe comedy, co-creating "The Office" and various other projects with Ricky Gervais including "Extras" and "Life's Too Short." But working on his…
Friday TV: Reconstructing Dylan Songs
This fall's flurry about songs Bob Dylan composed 47 years ago in upstate New York has resulted not only in a five-CD package of 138 recovered recordings, but a mysterious…
Thursday TV: Is College Worth It?
With student loan debt reaching $1 trillion and nearly $239 billion given in loans last year alone, the documentary "Ivory Tower" (CNN, 9 and 11 p.m.) asks once more whether…
Wednesday TV: Landing on Comet Story
Rosetta may have gone silent, but the specials about the spacecraft that managed to land on a comet last week gets a special, "To Catch a Comet" (PBS, 10 p.m.,…
Josh Assesses His Ouster on ‘Survivor’
For a while, things were going pretty well for Josh Canfield on “Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water.” The savvy and likable player had won over his…
Tuesday TV: Nikita Visits the U.S.A.
After all the excesses of the Cold War, it may have seemed surprising that Dwight Eisenhower invited Nikita Khrushchev to the United States in 1959. The sincere gesture to diplomacy…
CNBC’s ‘Money Talks’ Walks
CNBC has quietly canceled “Money Talks,” the one-season reality show that followed the sports book operations of an ex-con in Las Vegas. The prime time show had low ratings from…
Monday TV: Sorry ‘State of Affairs’
I'm no "Scandal" fan, but it seems like "West Wing" compared to "State of Affairs" (NBC, 10 p.m.) the latest in the strong-woman in Washington trend that began with "Homeland"…